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Hat-trick for LILAC – cheap, green, co-living

LILAC is an inspirational affordable co-housing development in Leeds in the UK. LILAC stands for Low-Impact Living Affordable Community and it combines low-impact eco housing with affordability and co-housing, possibly one of the first in the world to encompass all of those aspects at the same time.

Paul Chatterton from the School of Geography at the University of Leeds presented their story in this TEDx talk. The story of dogged determination and persistence is very similar to that of the Earthsong co-housing development in Auckland.

Paul describes an ownership model proportional to income which would have a major impact on housing affordability and social housing.

The buildings are built with high levels of insulation and air-tightness along with proper mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (similar to the Passive House approach) resulting in very high thermal efficiency.

Insulation is provided by straw bales, using ModCell‘s innovative modular system. The system has the advantage of low-, or negative-, carbon construction, yet forms very linear walls indistinguishable from any other modern construction method.

2 thoughts on “Hat-trick for LILAC – cheap, green, co-living”

Thanks for the coverage of Lilac cohousing – nice to know their trailblazing has come to your notice. It is great how cohousing projects invariably aim also for eco-efficiency. Keep your eyes open for when the one I am a member of gets built. The site we are close to buying also has an historic building on it – so we will be into conservation as well as innovation.

Thanks, David. We’ll add a link to your website on our site. It’s very encouraging and heartening to see that other groups have similar values and face similar challenges. Resources such as your principles and decision making tools are also useful. (I assume you’ve also discovered the Earthsong community here in Auckland.) I can see the value in sharing the journey as well as the outcome for others around the world, so we’ll try to do the same.